Virgin Blue looks set to relaunch as Virgin Australia tomorrow, when the airline’s second Airbus A330-200 and a new Boeing 737-800 land at Sydney Airport at around 9am wearing the airline’s new colours.
“On 4th May 2011, Sir Richard Branson will join Virgin Blue Group of Airlines CEO, John Borghetti, to unveil the new face of the Virgin Blue Group of Airlines,” the airline’s media alert reads.
It is understood that the A330 (VH-XFB) and the 737 (VH-YFC) will both land at Sydney at 9am after being repainted in the airline’s new colours at Kuala Lumpur and Christchurch respectively, before being shown to media at a 10am press conference.
The ex Emirates A330 was registered to Virgin Blue on April 19, while the brand new 737 was delivered to Virgin Blue in Brisbane on April 5, painted all white. Featuring the new ‘Boeing Sky’ interior, VH-YFC was briefly placed in VB service before flying to Christchurch for repainting. It is likely that both aircraft’s interiors, including the A330’s business class, will be open for inspection by the media.
Will Horton’s ‘Wings Down Under’ blog has already detailed how Virgin Enterprises has submitted a Virgin Australia logo, reminiscent of Virgin Altantic’s logo, to be trademarked by IP Australia, while ‘The Australian Business Traveller’ website reported earlier today that Virgin Blue long haul offshoot V Australia’s website’s booking engine today showed domestic connections to V Australia flights as being operated by Virgin Australia.
It is expected that the Virgin Australia named will be used for current Virgin Blue domestic services, while the V Australia name will be retained for long haul flights, and also be adopted by Pacific Blue.
